First-time entry students’ experiences with frontline administrative services in a selected university in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

The service of public servants has been a matter of concern over the years and tends to predominately manifest itself through frontline administrative staff, including in institutions of higher learning. Frontline administrative staff play a crucial role in providing efficient services to stakeholders, particularly first-time entry students (FTENs), who are still acclimatising to the tertiary environment, however, literature has highlighted inefficacies in the service provided. In this regard that this study aimed to examine the experiences of FTENs with frontline administrative services at a selected university in KwaZulu Natal. The objectives of the study were to determine the perceptions of FTENs in frontline administrative services, to assess, using the Batho Pele principles, the degree to which frontline administrative services influence the service experience of FTENs, and to determine the implications of frontline administrative services on the service experience of FTENs. The Batho Pele Principles was adopted as a guiding conceptual framework, conventionally governing the interaction between public servants and the public. A post-positivist paradigm afforded the employment of both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a survey research design. The questionnaire with Likert scale and both openended andclose ended questions was used through convenience sampling to collect data from a sample of 160 FTENs at Durban University of Technology in the Business and Information Management (BIM) programme and received a response rate of 67%. Thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. The findings of the study indicated that the students’ perceptions of the front-line administrative service were mostly positive, with an insignificant minority indicating being unsatisfied. Regarding how the institution’s adhesion to the Batho Pele Principles influenced the service experience, almost the entire group of participants stated that the institution has been adhering to the Batho Pele Principles with a very small faction of the participants stating an inverse experience. The study identified some areas of improvement in the institution’s adherence to the Batho Pele principles. Regarding the implications of front-line administrative services, most of the students expressed positive sentiments about the service, indicating that they would highly recommend the institution to other prospective students. However, a minority of students expressed negative experiences, making them more likely to be rejected and less keen to recommend the institution to other prospective students. emphasized areas of improvement such as responsiveness, friendliness, and overall service quality. Additionally, the study provides several recommendations to improve the service provided by frontline administrative staff in the institution. These include investing in staff training, monitoring, and increasing adherence to service delivery principles.